The present invention relates to a copying machine of the type having a drum bearing a sheet of photosensitive material wound around its surface for the purpose of carrying this sheet through successive stages of copying at stations disposed around and adjacent the periphery of the drum.
A machine of the aforesaid type is known in which this sheet is constituted by a portion of a band or strip fed from a feed reel and rewound on a take-up reel, both reels being mounted inside the drum which is provided with two slots in its periphery for the purpose of permitting the said band to emerge from the interior of the drum and re-enter it. The band is wound around a first portion of the drum having an angular extent of about 180.degree., while a second portion complementary to this first portion and not covered by any band is pivoted in the covered portion so as to form a cover which can be opened for gaining access to the interior of the drum.
This copying machine, however, has the disadvantage that in order to replace the reels it is necessary to remove either the entire drum from the machine or the greater part of the stations which are mounted adjacent the drum, since otherwise the operation of winding the first portion of photosensitive band around the first porton of the periphery becomes extremely difficult because of the relative obstacle which the drum and the electrophotographic stations form.
The technical problem that the invention proposes to solve is, therefore, that of producing a copying machine of the aforesaid type in which the operation of replacing the feed and take-up reels of the band is facilitated and can take place without the removal of the drum from the machine and in any case with a limited removal of parts of the said machine.